Tuesday, June 23, 2009

Elevator Pitch Winners per Agent Mollie Glick!

After carefully considering all of the fabulous entries, she's selected her 11 favorites.

These lucky winners will be asked to submit their partial manuscript to Ms. Glick!

Drumroll please...

And the winners are (in alphabetical order by username)

acarthur (YA)

Krystal Bentley has a crush and he’s everything she ever wished for, he’s movie-star cute, laughs at her dry humor and listens to her rantings about her divorced parents without judging. There’s only one problem—he’s dead.

alh719 (narrative fiction/memoir)

On December 7, 2007, I was slugged by a drunk frat boy. In that instant, I realized that living with 65 college women wasn't as glamorous as I thought it would be.

SORORITY HOUSE MOM is the tale of my two-year romp as the house director for a female version of Animal House. While celebrating all that is good, magical, and enchanting about sorority life, it also tells what can happen when things go terribly wrong.

auntpeapie (Adult Fiction)

Olivia Howard transitioned from obedient Air Force brat to dedicated wife and mother, but her orderly life is disrupted when she learns her teenage son and his girlfriend are expecting a child. When the idea of adoption is mentioned, she supports their choice, but no one anticipates her proposal to raise the child as her own—a suggestion interpreted as selfless to some, yet selfish by others, including her husband. AN IMAGINED LIFE explores how her decision threatens to unravel the stability she’s endeavored to achieve.

bgheald (Adult Fiction)

Shelby Holt knows she can’t trust her heart but when she meets Chad Graham she doubts she can trust her head either. The new ranch hand looks uncannily like the man she loved--a man whose death she’s determined to prove was no accident.

collie (Literary Gothic)

After her sister's suicide, Doril is sent to care for her reclusive and delusional great grandmother in Swale Hall on the edge of the Yorkshire moors. She becomes immersed in the old woman's imaginary world, gets to know the still passionately loved, long dead,Tristrum, and discovers the misconceptions that caused such anguish in their relationship.

fictionwriter (YA)

A fifteen-year-old American boy vacationing in Paris stumbles into a murder attempt, and plays a dangerous game to solve a puzzle and prevent an international crisis in THE FOGGED MIRROR.

kerribookwriter (YA)

When troublemaking fifteen year old Tina Lilly is sent to live with her grandmother, she has trouble adjusting to the slow way of life in small town Texas . Things suddenly take a turn after she discovers an old journal in the attic which reveals a murder her grandmother committed fifty years earlier.

In this “My So-Called Life meets Veronica Mars” coming of age romantic suspense novel, Tina will learn that sometimes living a lie is the only way to survive the truth.

kph555 (Adult Fiction)

HUNGER IN THE HEART OF GATOR TOWN is a Southern literary novella, with a finished sequel, about a young boy coming to terms with the consequences World War II has had on his family.

His beloved, shell-shocked, and unpredictable, father stages continual games of war to train his son, his bigoted, alcoholic mother blames the misfortune in her marriage on the black soldier whose life her husband saved, and his manipulative, cantankerous grandfather stirs up constant trouble between the two, while Coleman Puttman Bridgeman, III, is in the center of it all, fighting a personal war of survival.

When the boy’s father is suspiciously shot and killed, his grandfather accuses his daughter-in-law, and a bitter estrangement between Coleman and his mother is set in motion, tempered only by the family’s wise gardener and a neighbor girl with family problems of her own.

lauramcneal (Mystery/Suspense)

A young woman is kidnapped and disappears without a trace; three years later, a senator dies mysteriously, their paths linked by fate and the colliding ambitions of others – the head of the state lottery who will stop at nothing to become the next governor and the missing woman’s sister, whose relentless quest to find the truth threatens to bring him down.

Number_One (YA)

With his dad unemployed and money too tight to buy the comic books he pores over with his friends, Prentis Porter thinks eighth grade at his lousy new school can’t get any worse -- until a deadly cafeteria shooting not only leaves him questioning how he mysteriously survived, but his father’s miraculous appearance as it all ended.

His parents now constantly arguing as more losses pound his family, the imaginative teen finds himself increasingly alone, struggling with sometimes terrible revelations about his best friends, teachers, and family as he pursues the greatest secret of all -- the one he's begun to believe his father holds. Is it even possible, or is Prent the victim of his own imagination:

Is his father some kind of real-life superhero?

StevenLevy (YA)

President Lincoln was stabbed to death before being reelected – that’s what history books would say were it not for two daring, clever, and accidentally reeking children from our own time.

Ted and Carin, preteens living with their emotionally broken father in rural Washington State, find an antique key that opens the door on a sweltering afternoon in the other Washington (DC), where the Civil War is raging and conspirators are plotting to kill the president. Somehow, between stumbling into the sewage-ridden Washington Canal, sneaking into the loosely guarded White House only to lose each other in the vast building, and dodging a soldier still angry over his war wounds and a medium who claims she can reveal their future, these two children, out of place and out of time, must stop a murder that would change history – and find their way back home.

Ms. Glick also compiled a list of honorable mentions. They include:

aliciamuhlestein (YA)

Sent to live with her grandmother at Tamlin Manor, Anika learns that someday she will assume her role as heiress of Tamlin and caretaker of the earth--Mother Nature.

When William Shakespeare sends his son to take over his responsibilities at Tamlin and an Arthurian knight is spotted spying, Anika finds herself in the middle of a few mysteries, an ancient love story, and an admirer who is sworn to a secret not even the myths can know.

Amanda_Sullivan (Narrative Non-Fiction)

Families with children diagnosed as having “mental health issues” such as Autism, Bipolar Disorder, Depression, or any of the other devastating names that are becoming so common to our vocabularies, tend to become lost in the psychological community. Usually they have searched for years looking for answers and they are tired and confused by the lingo, the meds, the social difficulties, the entire family feels it and suffers. This book is a parent’s “guide” through counseling and a Pollyanna approach to finding the true beauty in their child.

aprilannerwin (Adult Fiction)

Kianna Ravencamp’s dream has always been to find The One – but being plus-sized is a real hindrance on the romance market; add in the fact that every relationship around her is dysfunctional and she gives up hope that true love like her parents’ is still possible. Instead, she focuses on the next best thing, her dream of being a songwriter. God has bigger things in mind though – like Nick, Jason and Derek - and her journey to fulfill one dream may just upset everything she believes true about romance, herself, and The One.

chazley (YA)

High school holds as many secrets as a UFO crash site, and no one keeps her mouth shut better than Em Hopkins, a lone shape-shifter in a world of ordinary people.

Em can be anyone you want, from Barack Obama to Avril Lavigne; when the need to shift engulfs her, she can be anyone but herself. HOWEVER YOU WANT ME is a novel about identity, lies, and falling in love with the Hawaiian boy next door (or his brother).

cncurtin (YA)

THE UNICORN TAMER is where Greek mythology meets Pokémon, a young adult fantasy about a 13-year-old girl named Emma Brown, whose destiny is to rehabilitate all the endangered species - from the ordinary blue whales to the extraordinary griffons. The problem is her destiny clashes with a Hunter named Theron, who's destined to wipe out the animal race and prove that man is the most powerful beast of all.

When Theron kidnaps her parents, Emma attempts to rescue them and, in the process, inadvertently discovers a leprechaun city, saves a baby unicorn, and changes the fate of all endangered species - ordinary and extraordinary.

dutchhenry (Adult Fiction)

The cancer is winning, and she'll be gone by fall -- but they have one last summer. One hot summer to consummate a lifetime of love, to cry together, laugh together ... remember together. But when a troubled young girl and an injured horse turn to them for help, Mary and Sam Holt's eloquent final goodbye will embrace the labors of lovingly nursing the horse and leaving an enduring, healing mark on the girl.

harriet (Romantic Suspense)

A sgian dhub dagger links the murder of a handsome 34-year-old man in present-day Boston to a vow made by a Scottish ancestor 700 years earlier. The victim’s widow and his wealthy, powerful best friend are determined to uncover the reason for the senseless killing and avenge it. United by a mutual goal, the two find it increasingly difficult to resist a powerful attraction to each other.

LorettaWheeler (Historical Paranormal Romance)

It is the 1800’s in the heart of New Orleans, where above ground graves guard their secrets with moss cloaked tenacity, and where Deidre Devereaux has not only inherited a plantation, but something more…something wicked…something long dead; something that wants her, and her soul.

LynnRush (YA)

Maybe if Emma Martin hadn’t witnessed vampires kill her first true love, she’d be more willing to fall in love again. Despite her best efforts to resists him, Jake Cunningham steals Emma’s heart. But when his family starts triggering her mystical tattoo, which detects the undead, she may be forced to hunt them.

Congratulations to all! Winners, please email me at the address in the sidebar for details on your submission prize.

Big thanks to Mollie Glick for serving as judge, and thanks to everyone who entered. Remember, even if you didn't win our contest you can still query Ms. Glick with your complete and polished project!

Mollie Glick

After graduating from Brown University, Mollie began her publishing career as a literary scout, advising foreign publishers regarding the acquisition of rights to American books. She then worked as an editor at the Crown imprint of Random House, before switching over to "the other side" and becoming an agent at JVNLA (The Jean V. Naggar Literary Agency) in 2003. Mollie's list includes literary fiction, narrative non-fiction, and a bit of practical non- fiction. She's particularly interested in fiction that bridges the literary/commercial divide, combining strong writing with a great plot, and non-fiction dealing with popular science, medicine, psychology, cultural history, memoir and current events. She's very hands-on, working collaboratively with her authors to refine their projects, then focusing on identifying just the right editors for the submissions. In addition to her work as a literary agent, Mollie also teaches classes on non-fiction proposal writing at Media Bistro, and a copy of her instructional article on non-fiction proposal writing will be featured in this year's edition of the Writers Digest guide to literary agents.